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Date:      Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:35:39 -0800
From:      Pyun YongHyeon <pyunyh@gmail.com>
To:        bf1783@gmail.com
Cc:        Mike Clarke <jmc-freebsd2@milibyte.co.uk>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: Which network driver for RTL8211 or 8201 NIC's?
Message-ID:  <20110120003538.GE12030@michelle.cdnetworks.com>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTimLm4vAGXVdukSo1xYiei1nzG1tSGDxp=Ocpoof@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <AANLkTimLm4vAGXVdukSo1xYiei1nzG1tSGDxp=Ocpoof@mail.gmail.com>

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On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 11:54:54PM +0000, b. f. wrote:
> Mike Clarke wrote:
> > I need to replace a failing motherboard. I'm aiming to keep the existing
> > Athlon CPU so I'm tied down to to a socket AM2(+) board and the
> > majority of those available seem to have nForce 630a chipsets and
> > RTL8211CL or 8201EL NIC's which aren't explicitly mentioned in the
> > release notes
> > <http://www.freebsd.org/releases/8.1R/hardware.html#ETHERNET>. I see
> > that the strings RTL8211C(L) and RTL8201L (but not EL) appear
> > in /usr/src/sys/dev/rgephy.c and rlphy.c but the man page for the rl
> > driver only mentions RealTek 8129/8139 and I'm not sure which driver is
> > built from rgephy.c.
> >
> > Am I going to have problems if I get a motherboard with one of these
> > NIC's?
> 
> It's a bit confusing, because there are product numbers associated
> with NICs, and with different individual component chipsets, and some

Correct. Identifying exact model number is the one of hardest thing
in Realtek controllers. I think RTL8211CL or 8201EL are not MAC
controller but the PHY model name. These PHY are supported by
rlphy(4) since they are not gigabit PHY(e.g. Fast Ethernet).

> code is shared.  Pyun YongHyeon, who has been working on the re(4) and
> rl(4) drivers in -CURRENT and -STABLE recently, could probably tell
> you more (I've cc'ed him).
> 

All Realtek controllers are supported so I think you don't have to
worry about that. Very recent controller like RTL8105 is not
supported yet but it would be done in near future.

> b.



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